What to expect at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2005 Dinner
Arrive Early: The doors will open at
5:00 pm. All seating is reserved, and all tables are placed in the
order that they were ordered (except for special circumstances such as
a major sponsor hint hint). We find this is the most fair, and it
encourages people to buy their tickets earlier to ensure a table closer
to the stage. We expect a rush just prior to the posted 5:30pm
reception
time. This is the time to go to the bar and get your dram of
Glenfiddich or pint of McEwan's Lager – specially ordered for tonight's
dinner.
Buy Your Raffle Tickets: We have some great door
and raffle prizes lined up. Lots of books (being the writers we
be), gift certificates and theatre tickets + other surprises.
This dinner is the primary fundraising event for
both the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, publishers of RicePaper Magazine and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon
Boat Team. Please support our missions of supporting and developing emerging writers,
organizing reading events, and to spread multiculturalism through
dragon boat racing – or come join our teams!
The first appetizer dish will appear once people
are seated, and after the Piping in of the musicians and
hosts. We will lead a singalong of Scotland the Brave and give
good welcome to our guests, only then will the first appetizers
appear. You want to eat, you have to sing for your supper!
From then on… a new dish will appear every 15 minutes –
quickly followed by one of our co-hosts introducing a poet or musical
performer. Serving 60 tables within 5 minutes, might not work
completely, so please be patient. We will encourage our guests
and especially the waiters to be quiet while the performers on stage.
Then for the 5 minute intermissions, everybody can talk and make noise
before they have to be quiet for the performers again.
Expect the unexpected: I
don't want to give anything away right now as I
prefer the evening to unfold with a sense of surprise and
wonderment. But let it do be known that we have an incredible
array of talent for the evening This includes
bagpiper Joe McDonald with his fusion band Brave Waves as well as
Chinese-born bagpiper Zhongxi Wu with his celtic musician
friends. We have two opera sopranos and a hip hop singer…
highland dancers… more surprises…
Our non-traditional reading of the “Address to the
Haggis” is always a crowd pleaser. I hand-pick members of the
audience to join us on stage to read a verse. Past participants
have included former federal Secretary of State Raymond Chow, Qayqayt
(New Westminster) First Nations Chief Rhonda Larrabee, UBC
Director of the Chan Centre Dr. Sid Katz, a descendent of Robert the
Bruce, a doctor from White Horse, a UBC student from Scotland, somebody
doing a vocal impression of Sean Connery.
The evening will wrap up somewhere between 9:00 and
9:30 pm, then we will socialize further until 10pm. People will
leave with smiles on their faces and say to
each other, “Very Canadian,” “Only in Vancouver could something
like this happen,” or “I'm telling my friends.”